Veteran UFC lightweight Al Iaquinta applauds heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou for seeking a better deal from his promoter.
“Good for Francis,” he said Wednesday on The MMA Hour. He remained true to his beliefs. Francis is the guy that should be going nuts right now.”
Iaquinta is able to relate. However, he has mellowed in the past years. Long Island’s native cursed out the crowd that booed him. He also fought with UFC publically over pay and joined an amorphous unionization effort. He is not known to remain silent when he feels mistreated.
Iaquinta prefers not to make too many headlines. His career is at risk due to long-standing injuries. He has to travel all the way from Colombia to receive stem cell therapy. This will help heal an ACL that was partially torn in his fight against Bobby Green, UFC 268..
A shade of Al is still present when he discusses the UFC President Dana White’s belt snub Ngannou. He claimed that a backstage incident at UFC prevented him putting on the belt to the champ. However, the UFC veteran lightweight didn’t question the official story.
“What the hell was going on in the back!” Iaquinta said. What was the matter? Who was in the back? We’ve gotta find out. I want to know what happened in the back. I need to know. There must have been some crazy happening back there. There must have been some sort of fight. There must have been another person there. … Something must have happened. We need to figure out .”
what actually happened.
Of the idea that White was simply acting out because he wanted Ngannou to lose, Iaquinta deadpanned, “Naw, it couldn’t be that.”
Iaquinta laughed about UFC’s struggle with talent and how White was courtesy of Jake Paul, a YouTube boxer influencer. It’s more entertainment than anything. Work outside the cage is keeping him occupied, whether it’s his ongoing treatment, work in real estate, or helping out teammates in the gym.
Iaquinta stated that he was going to retire from combat fighting two months ago. He felt the effort he had put in training and competing wasn’t worth it. He’s not as determined about his future.
” I don’t know,” said he. It’s tempting. It is so difficult to believe that this is it. There’s always a hope that things are going to come together.
“They say it takes time for the stem cells to really kick in. Do I want my body to go through this again if I feel good? It’s all about getting well, feeling happy, and that’s what I want. It’s very stressful. It took a lot for so long, and just fighting alone if you’re healthy is crazy. You have to deal with the injuries and doctors. It’s been a lot. So I’m just relaxing and chilling out.”
To date, Iaquinta said he’s had three surgeries on his knee in addition to procedures on his hand and other corrections. The trip to Medellin has given him some hope about getting back to normal. He isn’t happy with the way things have been handled up until now.
“You don’t get out of this thing unscathed,” he said. That’s one thing that is certain. That’s what I am beginning to see. … I used to like the anesthesia. It was like my favorite part of the whole thing, the 10 seconds before you go out. You just wake up. Nowadays, I do not want to go into a hospital. My belief was that you just need to go into the hospital, have surgery and be done with it. Doesn’t always work like that. This is a huge risk for everything .”
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